What are some tips for mastering Italian?

Italian, Italiano or lingua Italiana is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera; numerous Italian words referring to music have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Italian is, by most measures together with Sardinian, the closest language to Latin, from which it descends via Vulgar Latin. It is the second most widely spoken native language in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Italian is the national, or de facto national, official language in Italy, Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons), San Marino, and Vatican City. It has official minority status in western Istria (Croatia and Slovenia). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is a major European language. It is one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. Its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the food and luxury goods markets. 

Set realistic, achievable, measurable, firm goals!

In order to be successful at learning Italian, you would need to define a few critical parameters for yourself. Identify the reasons that can compel you to stay dedicated and recognize how much that means to you! Sit down and in a calm frame of mind and think.  Focus on your aims, aspirations and expectations you have from your Italian learning. Device a comprehensive learning plan, where you map language learning topics with time required to learn them, in a realistic not idealistic manner under short term and long-term plans. Evaluate the best approach you can take, to ensure you follow the learning plan, as devised. Assess the amount of time you can invest in. Review your goals at regular intervals to measure achievement vis-a-vis your plans. Tweak your goals based on this measure as required so you know it’s all working for you as planned.

Listen to as many audio resources of the dialect you choose. 

Focus on listening Italian to get a hang of the Italian speech, pitch, tone, accent, speed, rhythm and to effectively train your ear to get used to sounds and identify Italian when exposed to the language anywhere. Listening helps you connect with the language. After hearing it adequately read the audio transcript to assess your understanding of what’s actually spoken and what you understood. Every new language would sound nothing more than some noise at the beginning. 

Read along and read aloud. 

After multiple listening sessions, it’s time to follow the shadowing technique. Develop a sense of how words are spoken, where the speaker stops to breathe, and what words are conjoined and spoken together. Read the transcript loud, along with the audio, speaking the words correctly, aping the accent as you speak! You will get to learn the characters eventually so, you could skip the characters in the beginning; instead, try to get a little momentum in the language. 

Identify your unique learning style 

Some people learn better through visualizations, while others may find that writing things down is what helps them. Knowing how you learn can help you learn more effectively.

Look for activities that combine listening, reading, speaking and writing 

One of the best ways to learn Italian is to work on activities that combine different areas of learning Italian. While you would still need to focus on the separate categories of listening, reading, speaking and writing, a combination will help you assess your learning.

Seek a conversation partner to improve your Italian speaking

To speak good Italian you will need to practice speaking with a native speaker who you could help you learn and improve. Look for someone around you, in your neighbourhood, nearby community or online with apps like Tandem, Hello Talk, Italki, Languagepartners or Conversationpartners etcetera. 

Make learning lively and interesting 

Watch Italian movies with English subtitles and English movies with Italian-speaking subtitles.  Hear and sing along Italian songs. Watch Italian TV, Talkshows, Documentaries etcetera to enjoy learning. Sing along to your favourite canzoni (kahn-tsoh-nee) (songs) from Pavarotti, Tiziano Ferro and Jovanotti. Alternatively, you can search for the song on Youtube and add “con testo” (kon tes-toh) (with lyrics) and sign along with the music video.

Join online courses

Step Up your learning by joining professional learning programs such as Italy Made Easy, Mondly Italian, Wyzant Tutors, The Mimic Method, Multibhashi, and many more.

Learn to first speak the language so you can seek further help in learning from native Italian speakers listen to as many audio resources you can get your hands on this will enable you to familiarise yourself with how Italian is spoken and you will be able to identify Italian words after repeated listening to the audio clips follow this up by reading the transcript to see if you have understood the word the way it is pronounced in the audio clip you always have an option to hear the audio clip again and correct your understanding about the words being spoken. 

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